Simple Truth
by notreserenade
Summary: Eren Yeager's in his last year of college, and feels so emotionally strained from life that he considers taking a gap year. He's tired of his daily routine; tired of his professors' lectures and tired of... well, himself.
1. I : Aloof

In a land far, far away, Eren Yeager would be smiling. Laughing, even, if reality allowed him to. Having once had the sparkle of passion in his eyes, Eren would still breathe - slowly, but steady. The chocolate haired boy with a faint scent of an open fireplace would be the center of attention as he spoke with a voice so strong that even adults felt moved by his honesty behind the words he spoke.

Life's life, he would tell himself as he goes through painful tragedies and emotions that strikes his heart like an arrow piercing through elegant skin. Life's life!

Eren Yeager would repeat his litte qoute in his head over and over again, trying to hold on to the string of hope that seemingly thinned out each time he reached for a firmer grasp. Life's… life.

But then he loses his father.

And his mother.

And soon he realizes,

life's not life, after all.

The little quote that he had been trying to hold on for so long slowly becomes modified into what reality really has to offer. Life's not that easy.

Life, Eren thought, was to live by what he felt at the moment of breath he had until he closed his eyes for sleep. Life meant happiness. Not to lose everything he had once thought would never leave him.

It's been three years since his mother's death. Three years since time ticked by without him fearing that it would run out, and three years since the last time he's… felt. The simple act of feeling has become a growing burden after each modification he makes of his quote of hope. Maybe it's because he's emotional that he's the way he is; empty in ways that makes him seem rude. Empty - even though his eyes still carry the same light of hope - even if the light of hope he has left is close to microscopic.

And because Eren needs to cope with his own sadness, he represses what he has left of his past, positive self by shutting down his feelings every time he feels like his heart wants more.

Wants love.

 _Wants someone to care._

And so Eren chooses to think of how complicated the human brain is to be capable of tying and undoing shoe laces instead. He chooses to distance himself from the people around him. And to objectify every movement of human nature, trying to distract himself with the mechanical wonders behind science. The simplistic mind of a twenty-one year old boy (or man, whatever his age might be considered to make him) has turned into an everyday thing - a mask that he puts on the moment he wakes up. Putting on his mask has become something that he does so regularly, that he forgets that there exists an inner version of himself that longs for love - for emotions that he once decided could feel.

Yet here he stands, feeling, almost as if his heart is beating out of his chest as he watches Mikasa Ackerman sit by his window as the sky reflects its miracles of nature by hiding the clouds beneath rouge coloured twilight.

I

In life, there has never been a moment where conflicts conclude with ease. Small, simple truths are either too straight forward, or too sugar-coated. But as Eren experiences the hardships of life - whether it was stress from work or arguments with rude strangers; small, simple truths are the perfect balance of combined words to be told.

This is what Eren thinks about as he watches his professor passing out newly graded papers clumsily to his students. The question of whether one gets a good or bad grade is always so stressful. For professors to be following a guideline that's restricting a student's knowledge is truly a weird concept - yet it's functional and used for the education system to seem structured. Every time the truth of one's grade turns out to be bad, there'd be small excuses one would make to sugar-coat whatever emotional trigger one's bad grade has turned on. "Einstein didn't get good grades when he was in school" would be a classic example. After all, true geniuses doesn't live life to fit the norm of intelligence.

Or maybe it was just Eren.

It's fascinating, Eren thinks, how a complicated invention like paper could be regarded as a simple daily product. Yet at the same time, papers can be both nerve-wrecking and delightful - making it a craft that can be as comprehensive as art. Paper is delightful if it's paper that's used for art, and nerve-wrecking if it's a graded paper that's being passed out on a chilly afternoon.

Yet, nerve-wrecking wouldn't be Eren's choice of word to describe what he's feeling. If it was to be described more simply, the emotions that Eren feels at this very moment would be tiredness; tired because even though he woke up ten minutes before his current lecture after a ten-hour sleep from last night, he's tired of being in time for something. He longs for freedom, to do whatever the fuck he wants on a Friday instead of being forced (by his own will, really) to sit in a classroom full of half-asleep students tiredly living in denial of their bad grades and economical state.

"Hey Yeager, great work." his professor mutters as he gives Eren his paper with spilled red ink.

Not wanting to look at his own paper, Eren turns around to see whether someone he knows is in the same class. Scanning through the classroom, he meets eyes with a blonde-haired boy who's wearing a sheepish grin as he rubs his thumb on the big, red-marked 'A' the professor has marked as his score.

"A for Armin, huh?" Eren dryly jokes as he gives him the thumbs-up. Armin, who's been Eren's roommate for all of his college years is the only person Eren would truly call a friend. Both a social butterfly and a maniac when it came to random facts, Armin has been quite an amusing companion to share room with.

With a light chuckle, Armin responds with a nod. "Practice makes perfect. Did it go well for you?"

"Don't know, too lifeless to check."

"Got it."

Another great trait that Armin possessed was his level-headed acceptance. Whenever something was off, he would just conveniently know that it just wasn't the right time to ask anything further than what had already been brought up.

And just like he usually does, he shrugs off Eren's ignorance towards his own grades.

He would definitely bug him about it later, though.

"Mikasa Ackerman. A senior majoring in literature. Nice to meet you."

Eren feels a twinge of panic in his chest as he watches the girl with jet-black hair greeting his professor. It had been on his schedule for weeks, but being the sentimental youth that he was, Eren had missed out on the date of the project between the literature and history department in research of Western history's poetic greatness. Having had brushed this project of as a simple task, there had not been much thought that was put to the planning of this project.

Or well, no thought at all.

"I can't believe you forgot about this." Armin says as he sighs with a laugh. It's funny, because it's always Eren. Homework due Monday? Eren Yeager forgets to bring it with him to class. A presentation on the 'Three German Wars'? Eren Yeager forgets to charge his laptop the day before class. And unfortunately to Eren's dismay, irony and sarcasm has always played a major role in Armin's humour, especially when it came down to teasing people.

"You could've reminded me this morning."

"You know I wouldn't do that for you."

Eren watches Mikasa Ackerman walking towards him, and realizes only a few minutes later as Mikasa lands his eyes on his that she was his assigned partner. Although Eren had never met her before, something about her elegant stance made him nervous. Maybe it was the way she wore her hair in a neat ponytail, or the laid-back yet respectful outfit she was wearing. Whatever it was, it was making Eren hold his breath as she sat down beside him.

"Hey, are you Yeager?"

Although she had a perfectionist-look going on in the way she carries her emotions in the tone of her voice, Mikasa was very beautiful. There was always something about confidence that made an individual attractive - even physical features that wasn't quite as obvious upon the first sight of seeing that person. As for Mikasa, it was her long eyelashes that swiftly brushed along her delicate, pale skin, and the small mole on her neck that's just above her collarbone...

And when Eren realizes what he was thinking about, he clears his throat and holds out his hand awkwardly.

"Yeah. Uh-I'm Eren." he mutters as he gives her an embarrassed smile. Eren almost feels ashamed of his choice of clothing in her presence. If only he didn't go to class as he woke up. "Mikasa, is it?"

Mikasa responds with a small nod and takes his hand, sending a slight chill down his spine.

Her hands were surprisingly cold.


	2. II : Coffee Mugs & First Impressions

Temperature.

In the name of chemical balances, heat substantially speeds up one's blood circulation, resulting a slight flush on an individual's cheeks.r

This is what Mikasa thinks about as she takes Eren Jeager's hand and shakes it with a slightly embarrassed smile. If only she could out-power science - that way, her slightly flushed cheeks wouldn't be as giving of her emotions.

It wasn't Mikasa's first time to hear Eren's name. Although she would never publicly (or even personally, for that matter) admit it, she's been quite fond of him for quite some time now. Ever since what Mikasa has named the "Coffee" incident, she has found herself trying to find his presence at the university's cafeteria, and has somehow found out Eren's usual spot for coffee through causal conversations she's had with friends.

It is not stalking unless she goes out her own way on finding information about him, is what she has convinced herself.

Eren Yeager always seems to be so confident about everything he does - even things that he has never done before become things that turns into his own version of greatness. As for Mikasa, although her hard work has never let her down, she has always felt overwhelmed by how much effort she has to put into everything she does in order to achieve good results. And for someone as Eren to be so nonchalant about life makes her wonder, just how does he do it?

How does one become so easy-going about life, and still become successful at the things that he or she does?

She'll probably never understand it.

Her fascination with this seemingly plausible trait of Eren's slowly became a light attraction that she developed as she found her eyes travelling to his table every time she hears his voice outstanding her surrounding sounds. It's embarrassing to admit to a thing as such, and because Mikasa holds her pride dearly to her heart and soul, her fondness (or light fondness, as she would call it) of Eren becomes heavily concealed by the way Mikasa decides to hold her voice.

Confident, slow and steady - all of the things that she definitely is not.

"To be honest, I haven't done any kind of preparation for this project." Eren mutters awkwardly as he scratches the back of his head with a sheepish grin. "So I'd like to apologize to you first for having the bad luck to become partnered up with me."

Mikasa hold her breath before answering him. Is this what you do in order to achieve a care-free life that leads to success? She wasn't mad at what she just heard. In fact, she became more surprised than anything. Such a simple yet honest answer has never even once gone through Mikasa's head as an option to be spoken when engaging in a conversation of potential conflict.

So this is why I was interested in him, a small voice whispers in her head.

"No matter. Uhm." Mikasa fiddles with the coffee mug she's holding. It's an empty mug that, to Mikasa's embarrassment, has the words "Better Than You" printed on it. Trying her best to sound as naturally confident as possible, Mikasa swiftly rotates her mug as she asks,"How about we go somewhere more quiet to plan an outline for our project, then?"

As Mikasa watches Eren's eyebrows rise to a frown, she suddenly realizes what she had just said - or done. She had pretty much asked him out. Why did she do that? Going somewhere else to start planning a college project... Mikasa presses her lips together nervously as she wonders, why are there still group projects in college anyways?

Too often than not, Mikasa worries about the tiniest details in life. A trait that she'd love to leave out if she ever could.

But instead of being suspicious of Mikasa's firmly pressed lips, Eren holds a finger out to announce his idea. "In that case... how about "Cat's Coffee" just around the corner? They have some great sweet tea's-" he pauses and looks down at the empty coffee mug that Mikasa was holding the entire time, "and coffee, if you'd like a refill of some."

It's weird how fateful some coincidences seem to be. Mikasa has never been much of a believer in fate or destiny, but as cheesy as it may sound, everything has it's own time and place - even emotions.

It wasn't Mikasa's first time being at the same coffee shop as Eren. Last time it happened, Eren had been busily typing away on his half-broken laptop with hair that seemed to have been unwashed for several days. Having his presence in front of Mikasa at this very moment, she realizes that not much has changed about his appearance.

Not that she minded, really.

"You know what's funny, Mikasa?" Eren says with a smile as he holds up his coffee to showcase what he's about to say. "I've been eyeing this mug that they have here for a very long time. Every time I come here, I'd see this coffee mug either gone to someone else, or not used at all."

He was referring to his coffee mug, which had a puppy print on it. Mikasa raises an eyebrow, wondering how she should respond to such an absurd comment.

"And... you finally got it today?" she finally decides to ask as she looks at her own. A turtle. In response to Mikasa's awkward facial expression, Eren lets out a light chuckle and nods as he puts his mug down. "Something like that. I don't know, sorry for being off topic."

Eren has always been very bad at being normal. Normal is a norm that no one should follow by, yet it is a norm in itself to do so. But even though Eren is a firm believer in this, he still wished that he'd at least act to some extent of what normal might consider to be to Mikasa. Eren is acting as if he's never talked to a girl before. Shaking his leg and running his hands through his hair and talking about freaking coffee mugs… it's weird. What the hell was he doing?

The odd pair continues to concern themselves with unnecessary worry of whether they were behaving weirdly in front of each other for another three hours as they are working with their team project. It's surprising, Eren thinks for himself as he quietly observes Mikasa, whom was typing away the ideas they've cooked up together on her laptop. She didn't seem to be as uptight and cold as she had seemed in the beginning of their meeting. Her beauty was catching, in which added to the mysteriousness of the way she carried herself. But after have talked to her about everything from Bismarck to buying extra dog-biscuits for homeless people's dogs, Mikasa was surprisingly easy to talk to. And much lovelier than he'd expect her to be.

And just like that, three hours felt like one, and then half an hour, and soon it was dark outside. It wasn't until this bittersweet moment that the both of them realised that first impressions weren't everything, after all.


End file.
